The three doctors accused in the Dr Payal Tadvi suicide case filed a common anticipatory bail application today (May 28) at the Sessions Court in Mumbai. The plea is expected to be heard tomorrow (May 29). However, the plea of one of the doctors has turned infructuous, as she has already been arrested.

Dr Hema Ahuja (28), Dr Bhakti Mehare (26) and Dr Ankita Khandelwal (27) have been accused of abetting Tadvi's suicide by harassing her mentally while they worked at Nair Hospital. They allegedly harassed Tadvi with casteist slurs, even mocking her for securing admission on a reserved seat. Tadvi had finally killed herself on May 22 in her hostel room. Earlier today, Mehare's application became infructuous when the police arrested her.

In their common application for anticipatory bail, Ahuja, Mehare and Khandelwal called Tadvi's suicide a "very unfortunate incident" and said that doctors, resident doctors and staff in government hospitals are extremely overworked without adequate rest.

"As far as deceased Payal goes, it is clearly a case where she had shirked responsibilities in November 2018 to December 2018 for about a month and she had suddenly stopped coming to the hospital. The requirement of presence in hospital and high stress is categorically seen in admissions made in the FIR by the mother," they said.

"If the deceased had chosen to simply abstain from coming to the hospital when she was expected there and there were responsibilities to be performed by her from November-December 2018, if the deceased was labelled as a person who runs away (bhagoda), it cannot be said that it amounted to any kind of abetment to suicide or offences under the Prevention of SC/ST Act," the accused said in the application, adding, "The applicants were not aware about the deceased belonged to any reserved category and these facts become crystal clear from conversations between deceased and first informant (mother). The applicants are innocent and have not caused any trouble to victim."

The accused also stated that the only interactions they had with Tadvi was related to work and the matter of her caste doesn't come into play as Ahuja, Mehare and Khandelwal did not know which caste she belonged to.

"The applicants had professional interaction with deceased and it was work-related only. Applicant 3 had joined Dr. Cly on September 4, 2018 and the deceased went on leave in December. Thereafter, deceased worked in another department from December 2018-February 2019. The labour room was shut from January 2019 to April 2019... The applicants never knew her caste. They day in and day out treat people from all caste and categories...If they never wanted deceased to work there, they would have never worked with the deceased. The deceased has assisted the applicants in various operations. In fact, on the day she had assisted applicants 1 and 2 in an operation. This clearly shows that deceased was allowed to work and could freely do her work without any trouble from applicants," they wrote.

With reference to the allegation that Tadvi was taunted for a photo she put up about food, the application states, "She never went for lunch on that day, she had dinner on previous night. There is a lapse of time between going out for dinner and the time of the incident."

The three accused also noted, "At any rate, harassment assuming to be true for sake of argument would not lead to suicide or abetment of suicide.Situation may arise where things are stressful and people may decide to conduct themselves with high efficiency and pull up others who don't.If the deceased was acting in a manner, which was not proper as a student and as a trainee, she was expected to be pulled up. (If) she found same to be too stressful, she could have left the job."

They also went on to note in their application that Tadvi had never complained earlier and she could have since she had access to the authorities. "What is relevant to note that the deceased never complained in her life, at any time about any such harassment (caused) to her personally. The mother of the deceased claims that a complaint was given to authorities which she is circulating on WhatsApp which the authorities need to probe and find out whether in fact any such complaint was received...It is worth noting that despite her own husband being professor in a reputed government college as well as she also being a post graduate student had access to her seniors as well as the higher authorities in the college and yet she personally didn't lodge a complaint to any of the authorities."